It's play-off time and Shawn Dennis is pulling out the big quotes.
Here's one the outgoing 0800 Easy LPG Hawks head coach delicately puts from former Houston Rockets coach Tim Jankovich: "Never underestimate the heart of a lion."
After Wednesday night's quarterfinal victory over the Harbour Heat in Auckland, Dennis can almost hear the thudding heartbeat of American imports Josh Pace and Jon Rogers resonate at the basketball court during the National Basketball League (NBL) semifinals in Wellington tonight.
Hosts Wellington Saints, the Australian reckons will settle for nothing short of 100 points in a dual action of defence and attack.
"That's how they blew us apart the last time we were there so how we're going to deal with their transition offence will be a big factor to our game," the Perth Wildcats-bound assistant coach tells SportToday.
It doesn't worry him that the Hawks were running hot and cold against the Heat in the quarter-finals as his shooters found themselves ambushed.
"On any day you've got to knock down your open shots and that's the bottom line," he says, brushing off any suggestions that it may have been a better ploy to work the backboard rather than hit countless three-point speculators.
"It's funny how many people say to me you need to get the ball on the inside but when you've got four people around a shooter then that's going to be a pretty bad shot."
He feels the Heat unsuccessfully employed a "hopeful defence".
He's adamant that had the Hawks knocked down their shots from the perimeter, it would have been a 30-point ball game.
He lauded the Hawks' defence that yielded tough turnovers but it tickles him Jon Rogers was again, somewhat enigmatically, in the officials' bad book.
"I had a good talk with the referees after the game just to ask what to tell Jon because I didn't see him doing anything wrong.
"I thought the other person was the one who was causing all the issues but you have to give Rick Rickert the kudos because it's very intelligent to do that."
Impressing "adaptability" before every game, Dennis says players need to conform, not referees. "In the end I thought the big fellow [Rogers] did a good job."
On Wednesday night's performance, he felt Pace and Jarrod Kenny added impetus.
"It's very difficult to come into a game when the opposition's lost two of its best players," he says of Heat's Corey Webster and Kavossy Franklin, who are suspended over alleged recreational drug taking.
Dennis said the Hawks stuck to their game plan of tight defence.
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